InnovateNC: A Cross-City Learning Collaborative

Innovation is the modern economy’s fuel. As the primary source of new technologies, products, services, and practices that yield value, innovation is what creates new industries, makes existing ones globally competitive, and sustains economic growth and improved societal well-being. To ensure our state’s future competitiveness and economic prosperity, we must increase our state’s overall innovation capacity well beyond the Triangle and Charlotte. To encourage innovation capacity growth, the Institute for Emerging Issues and nine other statewide Partners have launched InnovateNC, an intensive two-year, cross-city learning collaborative supporting five North Carolina communities — Asheville, Greensboro, Pembroke, Wilson, Wilmington and the Carolina Coast—as they expand their innovation economies. The initiative also serves as a model for other communities, publicly disseminating products, processes, and tools for those interested in the same goal.

InnovateNC Community Innovation Asset Map (New and Available for Download!)

Thanks to the generous support of the Institute for Emerging Issues, RTI International, the NC Department of Commerce’s Board of Science, Technology & Innovation, and all of the InnovateNC partners, the InnovateNC Community Innovation Asset Map is being offered to communities as a FREE download during its initial launch. Additional tools are planned for release by the end of 2017 at InnovateNC.org. The Asset Map is a first-of-its-kind, turnkey tool for communities of all sizes, seeking to enhance their innovation ecosystems, and is a community’s first step for developing a concrete roadmap to grow their innovation economy meaningfully.

About Us

In February 2015, the Emerging Issues Forum, Innovation Reconstructed, attracted more than 1,000 innovation experts, advocates, and entrepreneurs from across the state and around the world to explore how North Carolina companies and communities will innovate to compete in an era of global connections, transformative technology, and constant change.

We learned that North Carolina is mired mid-pack among the nation’s states in overall innovation capacity and effectiveness. A recent Institute for Emerging Issues study, using SAS Visual Analytics software, found that North Carolina sits well below the top quartile of states and even trails the U.S. average on key innovation indicators, including output and compensation. Current trend lines indicate that North Carolina will fail to reach the top quartile unless we involve many more people in more of our cities in a broad innovation turn-around effort through which we reconstruct our innovation model and expand innovation capacity. North Carolina’s roster of leading innovation cities must expand beyond the Triangle and Charlotte.

We know thatNorth Carolina cities beyond Raleigh, Durham, and Charlotte are seeking to bolster their innovation capacity by adopting the new innovation district model. However, some struggle to develop the scale and complexity needed to foster positive short-term outcomes and create the conditions required for long-term innovation success.

To assist these efforts, the Institute for Emerging Issues at NC State University and nine other powerful public, private, and nonprofit entities have partnered to launch InnovateNC, an intensive two-year cross-city collaborative that supports five North Carolina communities – Asheville, Greensboro, Pembroke, Wilson, Wilmington and the Carolina Coast – as they make major gains in expanding their innovation economies.

Goals and Benefits of InnovateNC

InnovateNC aims to enhance innovation-related economic development and to advance critical new knowledge related to that goal. As a result, InnovateNC will:

Increase innovation capacity, activity and connectivity;

Broaden the demographic and sectoral diversity of those engaged in the innovation economy;

Increase collaborative cross-city learning and partnerships; and

Increase visibility and financial support for innovation district efforts.

InnovateNC will accomplish these objectives by providing the following benefits (valued at more than $250,000) to each InnovateNC city:

Information about, and preparation to take advantage of, existing and newly proposed innovation programs at the state and national level;

Guided development of a coherent strategic plan to accelerate inclusionary innovation;

Testimonials

“Bringing new ideas to market is critical for creating broad-based transformative growth. As the anchor institute of Research Triangle Park, RTI invested and co-developed this tool to help cities and communities around the world and in North Carolina create a path to economic prosperity.”

Wayne Holden, Ph.D., RTI International President and CEO

“The Innovate NC Community Innovation Asset Map promises to be a powerful and important tool for communities across North Carolina and our Nation to use as they consider and develop their vision for empowering and implementing community led innovation ecosystem priorities.”

“The next twenty years are going to be a period where every place — and every person — needs to be ready to relentlessly reinvent themselves. Communities need to build on their competitive assets, and this guide lays out the process to do that.”

Leslie Boney, Director, Institute for Emerging Issues

“The Asset Map was designed with an intentional focus on inclusion. It’s terrific to have high-quality resources in a community, but not so great if large segments of your population don’t know they are available or can’t access them.”

Sarah Langer Hall, Policy Manger, Institute for Emerging Issues

“All communities have assets they can use to build and grow a vibrant economy – but knowing which assets are most valuable isn’t easy. The InnovateNC Community Innovation Asset Map is an essential tool that will help any community—large or small, urban or rural—make the smart, well-informed decisions that are necessary to prosper in today’s innovation-driven economy.”